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Mai Tai's Shadow:  Legacies of a Cat Prince

The little black kitten Shadow cajoled into my world as the Grand Siamese Cat Prince Mai Tai faded from old age.  Through this book, I tell of my love affair with cats, which began with Mai Tai.  I describe their mystical history, especially that of ancient Egypt.   I speak of cats as Bodhisattvas, spiritual guides.  They are "Nature's Masterpiece," divine manifestations of beauty and poise.  When a cat dies or disappears, the day is not well.  However, it is the cat who guides our spirits beyond that which we'd otherwise know.  Cat Wisdom is the Wisdom of a Very Old Soul.

(Still Editing)  Most recent edit:  10-10-00 

He is old now, my cat Mai Tai.  My seal point Siamese.  He was always a beautiful cat, with bright turquoise blue eyes and the disposition of a Prince, a Cat Prince.  

But now, after fifteen years, his time has come and he is dying.  It was very hard at first, because he aged in but a week.  That is, in a week he became a very aged cat, an old and dying cat.  Though I knew this was coming, the vet had already diagnosed kidney failure.  Still, I'd hoped for more time.  We will always hope for that, even though the timing of death is seldom our chose to have.  

It's the parting that's sad.  The final good-bye.

But he, my cat, is dying with such noble grace and dignity.  He is sitting by the pond, enjoying a September breeze.   And I was going to have him put down.  Now, I will let him die in his own good time (unless he appears to suffer).  

He is fading from me, but he's still here, taking one last look around, like only a cat will do.  You know, that look from a window for hours at a time, or from the veranda.  

Mai Tai is gracefully tip-toeing out of my present life, kindly telling me good-bye as he walks, so skinny now, step by step through the gardens by the pond.  

It was, perhaps a week ago now, that the little black kitten showed up in our yard.  At first I didn't think much of him, just watched him play.  He was skinny, underfed, probably lost.  But he was frisky.  I picked him up and took him to the screened- in veranda.  It didn't matter now, about bringing home a stray kitten who might have Leukemia or something.  Mai Tai was dying anyway.

I sat the kitten by Mai Tai, both hissed at each other.  And after five or six days, the kitten, now fat, is still afraid of Mai Tai -- when we try to put them together.  (I have many pictures to come).

Mai Tai is fading now.  He quit eating perhaps a week ago and he is now skeletal, despite trips to the Vet and my attempts to hand feed him.  But he keeps going, a step at a time, to look around a while longer.  One more time. 

His eyes are no longer bright turquoise blue.  They are marked by a dying body.  Dying flesh. 

But Mai Tai has a very old soul, as only a Cat Prince could have.  So he stays around a while longer, perhaps to help me along, or simply to gaze at the world in the here and now, as only a cat would do.